Mentors, advisors, and local leaders. Culturally portrayed as figures of wisdom and tradition, custodians of culture and collective knowledge. Historically, female elders around the world have stepped up to affect mindsets and social norms.
In the first story of this series, we see how elder women are stepping up in non-Western cultures, primarily in West Africa, and we learn from Ashoka Fellow Dr. Judi Aubel about the importance of involving these women in catalyzing change. In this next story, we shift to South Africa and see how elder women are taking care of not only their communities, but also themselves as a sisterhood, taking back control of their bodies and lives.
Ashoka Fellow Beka Ntsanwisi and the Gogos — Exploring Livelihoods
Beka is enabling her fellow female elders in the rural areas of South Africa to master their responsibilities as the villages’ pillars — to take better care of themselves so they can take better care of their communities.
Younger people in South Africa often migrate to the cities for employment, leaving their families in the care of the grandmothers. With significant responsibilities and without the needed societal support, these women — commonly called “Gogos” in the Sub-Saharan region — become physically, emotionally, and financially stressed.
In 2003, Beka found herself spending time at the hospital for medical treatments, where she met many older women with ailments like hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and rheumatism.
“When I go to hospital, you see that there are many women there. Why women?”
In speaking with these women, Beka realized that their illnesses were often stress- and lifestyle-related. The HIV and AIDS epidemic continues to leave some children orphaned and in their Gogo’s care, although this issue is improving thanks to one of the world’s largest HIV treatment programs.
In other households, the mother might be on her own and in need of the Gogo’s intensive help. “They only get 1,000, maybe 1,200 rands [85 U.S. dollars] to feed more than maybe twelve or eight grandchildren. And it’s stressful to them.”
Healing through Community Exercise and Games
Beka had a brilliantly simple idea to help the Gogos take back their physical and mental strength and consequently embrace their role more effectively as the backbone of the home and community: “One day, I decided we need to do aerobics, take the Grannies to do aerobics.”
Beka realized that exercise has healing effects on the body and mind that medical treatment does not: “I thought by exercising, it will take out all the chemicals that are in me.” While gaining back her own fitness, Beka convinced a few of the Gogos to join her in exercising. Little by little, the simple workouts turned into exciting games.
Beka remembers fondly, “We went to the playing ground only to find that there were boys playing soccer down there. They passed the ball to us, so one Granny, I said, ‘Granny, run!’ and that woman decided to kick the ball. But it couldn’t go far, and the boys were laughing. She tried to run again, kick the ball. It was just going to us — the other Granny kick it, and the other one kick it, and we were laughing. The next day, they called me and said, ‘We need to do this again, it’s nice!’ And that’s how we started.”
From Games to Powerful Transformations
The organization Vakhegula (“Grannies”) was born, becoming a nonprofit in 2006. Vakhegula now reaches the Gogos in more than 40 communities in Limpopo, a northeastern province in South Africa.